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Releases Reviewed:

Sometimes the silent movie classics will get better DVD treatment than other old public domain films. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde has gotten good treatment lately, and there are a few older offerings of note.

It has gotten the Blu treatment from Kino. There are any number of stand-alone DVD's ranging from $1-$20. Kino has a “Deluxe Collector's Edition” which appears to be also offered in 2 different box sets. Image offers one with a couple of extras.

I got mine in a 50 pack of “Horror Classics.”

Video:

1.33: I haven't seen a mention of any widescreen versions available. The video is unrestored and looks washed out to the point of being hard to make out the image sometimes. It has a great deal of trash and is generally unclear.

Audio:

1.0 mono: This is an unremarkable quality score with a thin sound and plenty of white noise.

Packaging:

This particular disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve contained in a Velcro-fastened box. You can read about the set as a whole in great detail in the Horror Classics (50 pack) guide.

This is the 1 hour 21 minute cut which seems to be the longest out there. The score begins as organ music which is not as good as some I've heard but not bad. The last third or so of the movie swaps to a completely different style that is not only less impressive but even a little annoying in how poorly it fits the tone of the film. I don't know how it compares to other available scores, though.

Extras:

There are no extras of any kind.

Other Editions:

Run times vary by about 10 minutes or so. While I don't know what that footage entails reviews confirm that some releases contain scenes that others don't.

The Blu "Deluxe Edition" is remastered and runs at 73 minutes. The ratio is 1.33 at 1080p. Reviews say this is the best print of the film hands down but still retains all the flaws inherent in presenting such an old film. Audio is 2.0 uncompressed LPCM. All I really found when researching this is that the score is by Rodney Sauer and is well-suited for the film. Extras include the 1912 version, a portion of a rival film, a Stan Laurel spoof, and audio of the transformation scene.

It sounds like most if not all of this is available on the "Deluxe" DVD as well.

The Kino “Deluxe Collector's Edition” DVD version appears to be the shorter run of the film. Comments suggest that this is among the best available as far as image quality on DVD. It offers an orchestral score that one reviewer says is “good” (that was all I could find on that topic). Extras include a Stan Laurel parody, an audio recording called “The Transformation Scene,” a look at another movie by the same name from the 20's, an illustrated essay about the story's origins, and a feature about the score. This all sounds very similar to what's listed with the Blu.

There are 2 box sets from Kino that highlight different collections of silent movies: an “American Silent Horror Collection” and a “John Barrymore Collection” that appear to offer the same release of the movie as the one above just packaged with a few others.

The Image release seems to be the best rival for the Kino version. This offers the longer version but with a weaker quality presentation. It mentions having an excerpt from the 1911 (I assume this is actually the 1912 one) version of the story and being color tinted according to the original release specifications. It is said to include an organ soundtrack.

There are a few others that offer the longer run time of the movie but no other goodies. Several others fail to specify what exactly they have to offer.

Final Thoughts:

The best thing I can say about the Horror Classics 50 pack is that it is the longest runtime of the film I've seen listed. You're going to sacrifice quality, but you'll get a bargain if you are looking to acquire a bunch of old movies. For a better quality version of the longer cut check out the Image release. The Kino release is the next best way to go for a better quality presentation and more extras.